WMSC K1s on top at Cypress

The Whistler Mountain Ski Club K1 squad (age 11 and 12) started off their competitive season with a strong all-around performance at Cypress Bowl last weekend.

The skiers took part in two giant slalom races on Saturday and one on Sunday, making the most of the challenging visibility and snow conditions.

When all was said and done, the WMSC team took 13 out of a possible 18 podium positions, including all six gold medals. The club is calling it a "gold rush".

"Im really happy with our weekend," said head K1 coach Sead Causevic. "Weve been training pretty hard up until now, going into that first race, and we put the kids to the test."

The womens K1 and K2 teams have been dominating their zone in racing for the last couple of years. Thats not because there isnt any real competition from the other clubs, says Causevic, but because the WMSC girls have been training so hard. "Theyve been surprisingly focused for the last few months," he said.

"Still, its a challenge maintaining our edge. Its really up to the coaches and the club to keep finding ways to challenge them so they dont become complacent, but continue to improve."

In the first GS on Saturday, Brynne Benbow  the younger sister of Kayla and Kendall Benbow who are on the national development team and B.C. Ski Team respectively  carried on the family tradition with a solid gold medal run that put her almost half a second ahead of the competition. She followed up with gold medals in the next two races, earning the skiers equivalent of a hat trick for the weekend.

"Her overall performance was outstanding and a reflection of the days put in on-snow over the summer and her work developing an effective race day mental management-readiness plan," said Causevic.

Alecia Willis of Cypress was second in the race. Third place went to the WMSCs Jenny Higgins.

All but one of the other skiers in top-15 were Whistler skiers. Aside from Brynn McMillan of Cypress in the 13
th
position, the Whistler skiers were, in order of rankings, Lucy Nettlefold, Nancy Bayly, Lindsay Jones, Chanelle Segal, Emily Konantz, Madison McLeish, Alexandra Fogarty, Marielle Thompson, Katyhleen Self, Maddi Podborski and Whitney Lyons.

In the first mens race, things were a little more even with Whistler skiers taking just five of the top-15 spots  including first, third and fourth.

Ian-Spence Morrison took the gold medal, one-tenth of a second ahead of Ian Clark of Grouse. Alexander Binks was third and Isaac Penn fourth.